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Twitch - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Dec 19 2023

Platform / Twitch

Twitch (formerly named and still located at Twitch.tv) is a website that, like its former sister site Justin.tv, is used as a platform for livestreaming video broadcasts over the web. However, it was built with a focus on Video Games and eSports rather than the more general audience focus of Justin.tv. Despite only being around since June 2011, it became so popular that it eclipsed its sister site in terms of monthly viewership, becoming one of the top 500 most-visited sites on the web (according to Alexa). This caused its parent company to rename itself Twitch Interactive and later decide to shut down Justin.tv on August 5, 2014.

Despite rumors that the company would be purchased by Google, Twitch instead was purchased by Amazon for $970 million in 2014. In September 2016, Amazon began including Twitch Prime with Amazon Prime.

In recent years, Twitch has expanded to allow more general live streaming. In 2015 and 2016, it officially opened its doors for non-gaming content with new categories like Creative and IRL. This was broadened in 2018 when said categories were split into new sections, including Just Chatting, Music and Art. The new approach proved effective, with Just Chatting — category for talking to chat and general non-gaming content — climbing to a consistent spot at the top of the most watched categories.

Twitch has also begun expanding into sports, with a channel for Impact Wrestling, presentation of pre-season games for the Australian National Basketball League, and a channel for the National Women's Hockey League, which began airing games live on Twitch in October 2019.

Shows, groups and Let's Players on Twitchnote  with TV Tropes pages include: